Saudis accused of ‘whitewash’ after Khashoggi sentencing

Saudi Arabia’s judiciary is being criticized after sentencing five people to death over the slaying of Jamal Khashoggi.

Rights organization Amnesty International says the verdict is “a whitewash which brings neither justice nor truth” and comes as courts in Saudi Arabia routinely hold “grossly unfair trials.”

Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur for extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, tweets that “the travesty of investigation, prosecution and justice continues” in Saudi Arabia.

In Turkey, Yasin Aktay, a member of Turkey’s ruling party and a friend of Khashoggi, criticizes the verdict, saying the Saudi court had failed to bring the real perpetrators to justice.

“The prosecutor sentenced five hit men to death but did not touch those who were behind the five,” Aktay tells The Associated Press.

“The verdict neither meets the expectations of the public conscience nor the feeling of justice,” he says.

— AP